Whiskers and Soda aims to create a third space for kitties, humans & coffee

If you’re a cat lover, Whiskers and Soda on Garland Road might be paradise.

At the membership-based cat cafe, felines lounge in chairs, in beds and on table tops while sometimes receiving pets from humans. They also have the option to climb up onto shelves, ceiling rafters and cat furniture.

Humans inside the cafe wear shoe coverings to prevent tracking in anything unwanted around the cats and to soften the blow in case a cat tail is stepped on. Visitors are also given a set of ground rules — cats are not to be picked up and carried around, sleeping felines shouldn’t be woken up, volume inside the cafe should be normal and not too loud, young children are required to be supervised. And please, no flash photography.

“What we always ask people to do is just sit down,” says Rob Stovall, one of the cafe’s owners. “They’ll come to you. The ones that want love and attention, and they’ll come right up to you, and then you can hold them and everything, but if you just pick one up, you’re risking getting scratched or bit.”

Coffee drinks with punny names (Capurrcino, Amerigato, Meow Mocha, Long Cat Latte, Meowchiato, Cold Mew Brew and Iced Catfee) are served alongside pastries in a corner of the large room encased by glass to keep the cats from tainting the food and beverages as well as out of harm’s way. The cafe’s pastry and coffee supply comes from two East Dallas establishments — Lakewood’s Leila Bakery & Cafe and Cultivar Coffee Roasting Co., which is down the street from Whiskers and Soda.

Lake Highlands residents Rob and Caroline Stovall run Whiskers and Soda. Caroline used to live in England before moving to Dallas 18 years ago to be with Rob, and she noticed differences in animal welfare in the U.S. Her husband specifically pointed out the number of stray cats across the pond compared to the states.

Per a 2021 study by two people associated with the Cats Protection United Kingdom Cat Centre, the urban unowned cat population in the U.K., Caroline’s former home, was estimated to be 247,429. That same year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service and Wildlife Services noted the number of unowned cats to be between 30 and 80 million in a report. In our state, The Texas Tribune reported that about 568,325 cats and dogs were admitted to shelters in 2023.

To be fair, the U.K. is smaller in geographical size and population compared to the U.S. by almost five times for the latter. But there are more than twice as many people in the U.K. than Texas.

Thinking that animals need better protection in Texas, Caroline started doing more volunteer work and became president of the nonprofit A Voice for All Paws a few years ago.

“Caroline does nothing halfway,” Rob says. “It’s either 150% or zero.”

For Rob’s part, he developed a love for animals when he was young. Plus, he is supportive of his wife and was able to retire early to work on Whiskers and Soda.

“I could only golf so much,” he says. “So I was willing to devote that time to helping this place get going.”

Whiskers and Soda was born out of a need to introduce cats to potential adopters in a conducive environment. Before, there were two options. A foster parent either had to invite people into their home, and not all are comfortable with that, or volunteers would set up outside of PetSmarts with the cats in cages to find people willing to take one of them home. The downside is that being trapped in a loud, parking lot-adjacent space can stress the animals out.

“We just were like, ‘We wish we had a place where the cats lived, where that was their home. They’re relaxed, they’re comfortable, and people can get to know them in that setting to really find out who they bond with,’” Rob says. “And it just kind of dawned on us. We’re like, ‘Well, what we’re talking about is a cat cafe.’”

Starting Whiskers and Soda in 2023, with rescue intake and animal boarding on the other side of the building, wasn’t an easy process. About four months after opening the cafe (which used to be an accounting firm), a mix-up with the City ensued, and for six months, it operated without the ability to sell food and drinks, Rob says. Finally, they were able to reopen as a cafe after enclosing the kitchen in glass and adding a grease trap.

The rescue cats at Whiskers and Soda come from A Voice for All Paws. Before they are allowed in the cafe, they must be quarantined, fixed, socialized and examined for their health, Rob says. After that, they are placed in a room in the building that is off limits to customers, and the felines come and go through the cat doors between that private space to out in the cafe area. There is also a kitten room that sequesters the younglings from the adult cats and only allows a handful of humans at a time. The cats’ health and wellbeing are monitored by caretakers, who can take action if the animals are sick or stressed.

Self-cleaning litter boxes and food and drink bowls are scattered throughout the cafe so that the cats have access to the necessities.

Be warned that you will have to pay to get in the door to the cafe — $16 for non-member adults and $8 for children for the first hour and then half that for additional hours booked at one time. Memberships range from $5 to $200 per month. Members get discounted rates and other perks depending on their tier level. Walk-ins are subject to availability since only 30 people are allowed in at a time.

In the beginning, children under 6 years old weren’t allowed in, but now, kids of all ages can visit as long as they are supervised. Of course, that also means dealing with children who don’t follow the rules.

“We have so many amazing reviews, but we’ve got a few bad ones, and some of the bad ones are about people complaining about kids,” Rob says. “There’s good kids, there’s bad kids. There’s kids that know how to behave, there’s kids that don’t, there’s parents that know how to parent, there’s parents that don’t know how to parent. We’re not going to be that judge. We’re just going to let them in or talk to them before they come in, and if they’re being bad, we’ll have conversations with them.”

If a customer wants to adopt a cat, they go through that process with the rescue organization. Rob described the cafe’s role as more akin to a foster.

A little over 1,000 cats found homes through Whiskers and Soda in 2024, and Rob says they expected to reach 1,200 adoptions in 2025. Rob also mentioned that he and his wife were looking for a second Whiskers and Soda location to connect more animals with families.

“It’s all about just getting cats adopted and just trying our best to do the right thing and help the community,” Caroline said in a previous Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate article.

However, even people who don’t want to take a cat home are welcome in the cafe, Rob says. Some even consider it to be their third space.

“We get so many people that just love cats and want to hang out with them,” he says. “Even if they all have cats, it doesn’t matter. Or they don’t have cats, and they like cats, or someone in their family is allergic, so this is their way to get their cat fix in.”